Page 101 of Hold Me Today

One guess as to who put that option in the hat. Starts with anSand ends withophia.

Luckily for Mina and me, our choices are relatively simple this time around. She lowers onto all fours, so she can rest her right leg, from knee to foot, along my back, thus satisfyingright knee. Me picking out “back” for this round feels like a miracle and a half, especially when Penis over to my left is stuck pressing his pelvis to his partner’s ear.

“Oh, my God,” I hear his partner cry out, “this is so humiliating.”

Above me, Mina laughs so hard she snorts. “I can’t,” she gasps out, “oh, my God, Nick. You can’t see Dom—Don—but . . .”

My ears perk up. “But what?”

“He has—He has his—”

Another peel of laughter escapes her, and I shake my back to get her attention. “He has his what on herwhat?”

“His teeth on her thigh!” More laughter that jumbles her words, and I only catch “looks like he’s eating her” and “he’s miserable” before Sean’s back for round three.

The moment we scope out our next body parts, I curse under my breath. Obviously this is karma for laughing at Penis and Dom because I have zero idea how we’re going to pull this off. With my “left knee” and her “right boob” it’s almost impossible.

I attempt to bring my left leg up, so I’m sitting with my knee wide and bent at an angle. “You’re gonna need to lay down,” I say, “facing the opposite direction. Keep one leg touching me as you rotate or we’ve got nothing but shots in our future.”

Mina huffs as she rotates her body. “Did I ever tell you how bad I am at yoga?”

“I thought you were flexible?”

“I am,” she grunts out inelegantly, the top half of her body plunking forward. “I just don’t have balance. It’s a problem.” As though she jinxed herself, I feel her teeter, and I grind my teeth because, holy shit, she’s got herself some bony shins.

“Are we good?” I ask when she’s all settled in.

“Sure are.” One hand squeezes my ass. “I have a pretty good view. You win the Buttocks of the Year Award.”

Husky laughter escapes me. “Hey, we all got to be known for something in our lives.”

Couples begin losing in the time it takes for Sean to come around again. I hear shot glasses being slammed down on the table and a few roughly uttered, “Jesus, I hate Ouzo.”

“Can you see Dom?” I ask Mina.

“Not if you want to lose, Stamos. My boob is hereafter attached to your knee for the time being.”

God bless his NFL-player body. I hope Sophia isn’t scarring him right about now.

“Last round,” Sean tells me when he comes back. “There’s only three of you left standing . . . or, ya know, whatever it is you’re doing right now.”

Growing up, I never thought I’d find myself in a half-plank in a random manor restaurant at the age of thirty-two. Goes to show that life’s just one grand adventure after another. I wonder if Sean, who can’t be older than twenty, thinks we’re absolutely insane. He’s not wrong.

Mina wriggles above me. “Nick.”

I hold in a large breath. “Ermione.”

“I hate Sophia.” She flings her piece of paper in my direction, and I catch it as it flutters to the ground. In feminine script, someone’s written “chin.” I open mine, and don’t even bother to pretend this is going to work.

“I have Head,” I tell her. Neither of us are contortionists. “We don’t have time for you to remove three ribs, so unless you’ve got a master plan here, we’re out.”

“Dammit,” comes her throaty reply. “I don’t even know what the prize is and I’m feeling the loss of it already.”

I curl my spine like a cat, tipping her off and onto the floor. She rolls easily over onto her back, a grin of contentment on her face. Aware of the people all around us, I grip her hands and pull her up onto her feet. “There’s good news: now I know if I want to get creative in the bedroom, you’ll be able to rise to the occasion.”

Mina swats my ass. “Eighty-percent, Stamos. We’re back in that eighty-percent margin again.”

We are, but only because it’s easier to make a joke about sex than it is to come clean: that there is no one else I could have laughed tonight off with other than her. This weekend I need to tell her how I feel, and I only hope she feels the same in return.

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